Help save my pumpkin ale!

[ru41285]

Hey everyone,

Every year I brew a pumpkin ale with great success. This year I decided to get cute and use WB06 for a twist on it. I wanted to get a bit more clove than banana so I fermented it low (wet shirt with a fan blowing on it). Well I certainly got my clove with no banana. It's a lot of clove actually. As for the rest of the spices, I have no idea where they were until I looked at the jars I used and saw that all but the ground ginger were expired (by several years I may add).

So now I have this 7.5% abv clove laden pumpkin ale kegged and in the fridge. The problem is I have company coming over a week from today and would have loved to put this on tap for them but I refuse to in its current state.

My question would be for everyone's best suggestions for how to make my clove ale into a pumpkin ale. I've looked at buying new ground spices and boiling them for a minute before adding to the keg, adding cinnamon sticks and other whole spices to the keg, or making a tincture with bourbon (although I don't know if I have enough time to let it soak).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[seven9st_surfer]

I just changed up how I do my pumpkin ales this year, and it has worked out fantastic. I made a vanilla extract with 1/2 cup vodka and 1 bean split, scraped and chopped. I let it sit for a few weeks, so obviously if you need it now, you can skip this part and just use straight vodka and maybe 2-3 tsp of pure vanilla extract. Then, a few days before kegging, I added 1 tsp McCormick pumpkin pie spice to the vokda/vanilla extract. Shook the jar every once in a while, then poured it through a sieve to strain out the big particles.

The tincture went into the keg, and I racked on top of it. It gave me a really smooth pumpkin taste, not too subtle, but not super strong either. Really easy to bump up the pumpkin taste if you want, too. Just add another tincture if you want more.

I didn't bother boiling, figured the vodka would kill anything.

 

[psujeeperman02]

I just changed up how I do my pumpkin ales this year, and it has worked out fantastic. I made a vanilla extract with 1/2 cup vodka and 1 bean split, scraped and chopped. I let it sit for a few weeks, so obviously if you need it now, you can skip this part and just use straight vodka and maybe 2-3 tsp of pure vanilla extract. Then, a few days before kegging, I added 1 tsp McCormick pumpkin pie spice to the vokda/vanilla extract. Shook the jar every once in a while, then poured it through a sieve to strain out the big particles.

The tincture went into the keg, and I racked on top of it. It gave me a really smooth pumpkin taste, not too subtle, but not super strong either. Really easy to bump up the pumpkin taste if you want, too. Just add another tincture if you want more.

I didn't bother boiling, figured the vodka would kill anything.

So you actually pour the vodka into the beer as well?
I love my vodka, but wasnt sure if it would contribute to an off flavor of the pumpkin ale.

I brewed a pumpkin ale about a month ago. It is still in primary and I am looking for suggestions for my next step.

Ive tasted it and it only has a subtle pumpkin spice flavor. I added 2 tbsp during boil, for my taste, i need more spice.

So another tsp into the secondary is what I am thinking.
i have 2 vanilla beans in the fridge waiting to be used.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

Vodka is flavorless.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Vodka is flavorless.

Yep; 1/2 cup of it will have little to no effect on the flavor of the beer, and should only bring the ABV up by ~0.2% (e.g. 6.0% ABV -> 6.2% ABV)

 

[seven9st_surfer]

So you actually pour the vodka into the beer as well?
I love my vodka, but wasnt sure if it would contribute to an off flavor of the pumpkin ale.

I brewed a pumpkin ale about a month ago. It is still in primary and I am looking for suggestions for my next step.

Ive tasted it and it only has a subtle pumpkin spice flavor. I added 2 tbsp during boil, for my taste, i need more spice.

So another tsp into the secondary is what I am thinking.
i have 2 vanilla beans in the fridge waiting to be used.

Yeah, sorry took me a few days to respond. As others have said, the vokda will have minimal/no effect on the flavor. And for me, 1 bean was the sweet spot, but feel free to go for 2 if you really like a strong vanilla flavor.

 

[brewcat]

Spices don't really expire they just lose some of their punch. Even after years they still can be ok.

 

[brewcat]

So you actually pour the vodka into the beer as well?
I love my vodka, but wasnt sure if it would contribute to an off flavor of the pumpkin ale.

I brewed a pumpkin ale about a month ago. It is still in primary and I am looking for suggestions for my next step.

Ive tasted it and it only has a subtle pumpkin spice flavor. I added 2 tbsp during boil, for my taste, i need more spice.

So another tsp into the secondary is what I am thinking.
i have 2 vanilla beans in the fridge waiting to be used.

When did you do the spice addition?

 

[psujeeperman02]

5 mins at the end of the boil.

 

[psujeeperman02]

Yeah, sorry took me a few days to respond. As others have said, the vokda will have minimal/no effect on the flavor. And for me, 1 bean was the sweet spot, but feel free to go for 2 if you really like a strong vanilla flavor.

So when you add the vodka/spice mixture, would you add to secondary and let it sit for awhile or add right before packaging?

 

[seven9st_surfer]

I added it right at packaging. Poured the vodka/vanilla/spice mix into the keg, then racked from the fermenter on top of it. Came out great.

 

[psujeeperman02]

Any idea how much of the mixture you think you added?